Nokia has signed a turnkey deal worth EUR 125 million with Ukrainian operator DCC/Astelit to build and operate its GSM/EDGE radio network. With this frame agreement DCC/Astelit, which is majority owned by Turkcell, becomes a new customer for Nokia. In a deal expected to last two years, deliveries of the Nokia base station subsystem (BSS) will start immediately.
“Nokia is well known as the leader in the telecommunication world. DCC/Astelit has chosen Nokia as a partner to build its GSM network in Ukraine, based first of all on our trust in the company’s name and our recognition of the quality of its equipment,” said Valeriy Grigorievich Stepanenko, Chairman of the Supervision Board, CJSC “Digital Cellular Communication of Ukraine”.
“We are proud to provide DCC/Astelit with a GSM/EDGE BSS solution to quickly achieve high quality network coverage in Ukraine. There is a large untapped market to be addressed in this country, one of the fastest growing markets of the region, and we look forward to working with DCC/Astelit for quick and smooth rollout towards successful service launch,” says Jaakko Myllymäki, Vice President, Networks, Nokia.
Under the agreement Nokia will supply its complete GSM/EDGE base station subsystem, which can be smoothly upgraded to 3G WCDMA. In addition Nokia will provide turnkey implementation of the network, including site acquisition, civil works, network planning, implementation and project management for fast quality ramp-up of the solution.
Nokia is also providing its operations start-up package to support DCC/Astelit in starting and developing its operations competencies and procedures for the network for the first six months. Nokia Care services, including software maintenance, emergency support and hardware services as well as training will help keep the network running at peak performance.